Just Like Old Times
by PJF
Summary: Why did Caitlin leave Santini Air about 10 months ago? What causes her to come back?
1. Chapter 1

**Just Like Old Times**

Stringfellow Hawke brought the Jet Ranger in for a bumpy landing at Santini Air. He didn't usually land so heavily, but be Hoth he and Dominic Santini were exhausted after their mission to return a Firm spy back to the United States from Germany. Hawke put his head back and closed his eyes. He thought that Dom was still asleep from the long ride in from the Lair.

"These missions were a lot easier when we had Caitlin with us," Dom said quietly.

Hawke thought a minute about their mission and how Dom had had to let him out of Airwolf to go in and get the spy out of the house. It had taken him a long time to find the man and to get him out of the house. After he'd located the man, he'd run into a group of military types who had fired on them and given chase until they reached the safety of Airwolf. Yes, it would have been a lot easier with Cait helping to find the spy and covering his six on their escape out of the house.

"Yeah, it would have made it a lot easier getting out," he said. Pausing for a couple of minutes, he went on, "I wonder why she decided to up and leave out of the blue like she did. Everything seemed to be going so well and then Cait just up and left." Hawke looked over at Dom waiting for an answer.

Dom thought for a couple of minutes before answering, "I can't say why she left. Something must have come up her for her to leave like she did." Dom glanced over at Hawke to see if he had accepted what he had told him.

"Did you ever ask Cait why she left?" Dom asked.

"No... I just don't get why she left," Hawke continued, followed by a deep sigh. "We really could have used her today. Maybe we need to think about getting someone else on the team so we have three people when we need them."

"Yah, I guess we could think about that. But how do you advertise for someone to fly Airwolf missions? It's not like you can put an ad in the paper," Dom replied.

Hawke thought about what Dom had said and added, "Maybe I'll talk to Archangel about getting someone to help us out."

They sat there quietly for a few minutes, too tired to even move.

Hawke finally asked what had been bugging him, "Have you talked to Caitlin lately?"

Dom looked over at Hawke and said, "Yeah, I talked with her a couple of days ago. I'm going down to Texas to see her this weekend." He paused for a couple of minutes before he added, "You want to come with me?"

Hawke thought about the request for a couple of minutes before saying, "Nah, I've got other plans for this weekend," Hawke answered without looking at Dom. He was afraid to see the look that Dom had in his eyes—knowing that he wanted him to go with him to Texas. Dom probably figured that Hawke's 'plans' were for a date with some female, but Hawke's 'plans' for the weekend were just to go fishing at the lake, do some reading, and—truth be told—to miss Cait. "Tell her that I said hi and to take care of herself," he added as an afterthought. At the same time, he thought to himself what he'd really like to say was, _'Tell her that I miss her and I wish that she would come back. Things have not been the same since she left. When she left, she left a whole in my life that I can't fill no matter what I do."_

Dom looked over at Hawke noting the sad expression on his face. Then he asked, "You going up to the cabin or are you coming home with me tonight?"

"I'll bunk at your place tonight. I'd fall asleep if I tried to make it back to the cabin," Hawke responded.

Dom smiled, "That's great! It'll be just like old times!"

"Yeah, sure," Hawke responded. "Just like old times," he said out loud while thinking to himself, _'If only Cait was here with us. That would be just like old times."_


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 2

"Hey, String, what did you do with the paperwork on that charter that you did to Vegas yesterday?" Dom shouted from inside the office out to where Stringfellow Hawke was working on the Stearman.

"I put it on your desk," Hawke shouted back.

"Yeah, well, you may have put it on my desk, but where did you put it on my desk?" Dom yelled back at him.

Hawke put down the wrench and climbed out from under the Stearman, heading towards the office. When Hawke got to the office and he started digging around on Dom's desk. "Maybe if you'd kept the filing system that Caitlin started when she was here, you'd know where something was," he answered as he looked around. Digging through a pile of folders, he held up the one he was looking for. "Here it is," he said as he tossed it in Dom's direction. "I'm going back out to _try_ to finish with the Stearman if you'll leave me alone for a while." With that he stalked back out into the hangar and climbed back under the Stearman.

Dom caught hold of the folder as he gave Hawke a stern look. He wished that he knew what was going on in Hawke's head because he'd been short tempered since Cait had left 10 months ago. Dom wanted to tell Hawke why Caitlin had left, but he had promised her that he wouldn't.

Agh, kids!

Setting the folder aside, Dom stood up and went out into the hangar deciding that it was time to eat rather than time to tackle the bills. "Hey, String, I'm going out to get a sandwich for lunch. Do you want anything?

Hawke rolled out from under the Stearman and said, "Nah. I'm not hungry. I'm just going to get this airplane finished, but don't let me stop you!"

"Wise guy! I'll be back in a little while. Hold down the fort while I'm gone, will you?"

"Yeah."

Dom walked out of the hangar shaking his head as he went to get his lunch.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Dom was finally working on sending out the bills after he'd finished his lunch. He'd gotten through a couple of them when he pulled out the folder from the charter that Hawke had done yesterday. Opening it, he started going through the paper work. One thing Hawke needed to do was to work on his handwriting. Most of what Hawke had entered was unreadable. Dom was tempted to just put it aside, but decided that he needed to go through everything.

When Dom got to the last piece of paper in the folder, he stopped and a look of shock came over his face. Starting to panic, he grabbed up the paper and went out into the hangar where Hawke was putting away the tools he had used on the Stearman.

Waving the paper in the air, Dom yelled, "String, where did you get this piece of paper?"

Hawke stopped what he was doing and turned around to face Dom. "If I knew what paper you were talking about, I might be able to tell you," he said irritated at Dom for interrupting him again.

Dom handed the paper to Hawke who looked it over then crumbled it up and threw it away. "That was in the helicopter when I got back in it after taking the charter to Las Vegas yesterday. I meant to throw it away, but I forgot."

Dom went over to the trash can, got the piece of paper out, and straightened it. "String, didn't you think anything about it?"

Hawke looked at Dom with a cold, withering look and said, "Why would I think anything about it? I don't have a son!"

Dom looked back at String and decided that it was time for him to explain some things to him. "Come on into the office. I want to show you something."

After saying that, Dom started walking back towards the office. He stopped when he noticed that Hawke wasn't following him and asked, "Are you coming or not?"

Slamming the tool chest closed, Hawke followed Dom into his office.

"Make this quick because I want to get to work on the Jet Ranger."

Dom went directly to his desk, sat down, and started rummaging in his desk drawer. After a minute, he produced a photo which he set on the desk so that Hawke could see it.

Hawke picked up the picture and said, "Okay, so you have a picture of me in your desk of when I was a baby. What does that prove?" Hawke questioned Dom while throwing the picture back on the desk.

"It's not a picture of you," Dom shot back at him. "Just wait a minute while I find the other picture."

Dom went back to rummaging around in the desk drawer again finally coming up with another photo. He put this one on the desk right beside the other photo that Hawke had thrown down.

Hawke picked up the picture and stared at it with his mouth hanging open. Several minutes went by before he asked, "Where did you get this?"


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 3

Stringfellow Hawke took the two pictures and sat down in the seat in front of Dom's desk. He studied them closely, then looked at Dom and asked, "What does this mean?"

Dom looked at him and replied, "I think you can figure that out!"

Hawke looked back down at the pictures and asked, "How old is he?" He looked up at Dom with wondering eyes.

"He's about 5 months old right now," Dom answered. "He looks just like you, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he does."

Hawke looked at the pictures again and asked, "What's his name?"

Dom got a big grin on his face and answered, "Nicky—a shorten form of Dominic."

"Nicky—I like that name."

Hawke looked at the pictures and got a sappy grin on his face, ' _I've got a son named Nicky. He's cute as all get out!'_ Just then something hit him and the grin disappeared, so he turned to Dom and asked, "Is this why she left?"

Dom just looked at him and nodded. "I've been down to Texas about every other week to see the two of them and to help her out. She's back working at the Firm down in San Antonio. She's got a really cute apartment for the two of them not too far from where she works. She's doing really well for herself."

Hawke looked at Dom as he said this and started calculating things in his head. If Nicky was 5 months old then she must have been about 5 months pregnant when she left and went back to Texas. That means that this happened when they'd been together at the cabin when Dom had been too sick to go on that mission and they'd ended up there afterwards. Afterwards. After they'd found the family they'd been looking for dead—the father, the mother, and the two little girls. They'd both needed comfort and they'd found it in each other. Several times that night, they had turned to each other for comfort from what they had found. The next day, they'd had to go to Knightsbridge to be debriefed about what had happened and then they'd both retreated. Retreated into their own shells to try to deal with what had happened. They hadn't spoken about what had happened again. At least not until now. Now they needed to talk about it.

"You ready to go?" Dom asked.

"Go where?"

"To Texas to find out what's going on," Dom explained. "I figured that would be where you'd want to head."

"Yeah," Hawke said. "We need to get some answers from Caitlin." He quickly got to his feet and headed out to the helicopter with Dom trailing behind.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW


	4. Chapter 4

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 4

Dominic Santini pulled the car that they'd rented when they flown to San Antonio in Airwolf to the curb in front of Caitlin's condominium. When he turned off the engine, he turned to Stringfellow Hawke and asked, "You ready for this?"

"I don't think that I have any choice," Hawke said as he got out of the car. "We need to find Nicky and then we'll get the other thing fixed."

They walked up to the door to Caitlin's apartment and knocked. It took a couple of minutes, but then Cait came to the door.

"Dom, I can't talk to you right now," Cait said anxiously.

Hawke stepped forward into Cait's line of sight and handed her the paper that he had found on his chopper the day before.

Cait took the paper and read it, then looked at both Dom and Hawke.

Dom just shook his head and said, "Cait, we know about Nicky not being here."

Instead of answering, she just moved out of the way and motioned for them to come in. Cait moved further into the apartment and Hawke shut the door when he'd come through it.

They waited a few minutes for Cait to say something, but when she didn't, Hawke said, "What do you know about Nicky being missing?"

Cait had her back to them and she didn't answer right away. Finally, she sighed and answered, "I went to pick him up at the day care center yesterday and he wasn't there. The woman in charge said that Dom had come and picked him up and left me a note. I took the note and left. When I got into my car, I opened the note and it said… Here, read it!"

She went to her desk and got a piece of paper which she brought back to Dom. Dom moved over so that he and Hawke could read it at the same time.

"Okay. It says that they have Nicky and they don't want you to discuss the situation with anyone. They'll be in touch in a day or so," Dom said. "What did you do next?"

"I went back inside the day care center and got the person who was in charge to show me the tape of the person who picked up Nicky. If I hadn't known that it wasn't you, I would have said that it was you, Dom. Then I came back here and spent the rest of the night trying to figure out who had him and what was going on. I'm still waiting for them to get in touch with me."

At that point, Cait started crying. "He's so small. I can't lose him," she sobbed.

Dom went over to Cait and took her in a hug and tried to comfort her.

Hawke felt uncomfortable, but felt that he should stay out of this. He went out into the kitchen and poured Cait a glass of wine and took it back into the living room to give to her.

Dom had Cait seated on the couch and was still trying to comfort her. Hawke walked over and set the wine down on the table in front of her.

"You do know that we have to call Archangel," Hawke said breaking the silence that had descended. "He needs to know what is going on since it involves Airwolf."

Cait stopped what she was doing and just looked at him. She moved off the couch and came to stand directly in front of Hawke, "You can't tell Archangel! The people who have Nicky said not to get in touch with anyone! I'm not going to let you jeopardize his safety by getting in touch with Archangel!"

Hawke regarded Cait for a few minutes and then said very softly, "Cait, we _have_ to get in touch with Archangel. He's the only one that can help us get Nicky back in one piece. They obviously want Airwolf in exchange for him and they'll need me to fly her, so they'll keep Nicky to make sure that I do what they want me to do."

"No," Cait shouted at Hawke. "They'll let Nicky go just like they said they would! You can't put his life in jeopardy."

At that point, Cait slapped Hawke hard across the face.

For a few minutes, they just stood there staring at each other. Then Hawke turned and stomped out the front door.

Dom came over to where Cait stood and took her in a hug again. "I know that you don't want to hear this, but String is right. We need to get in touch with Archangel to see if he has anything we can use to put the odds more in our favor. String won't do anything to put Nicky's life in jeopardy because he knows how much you love him. He wouldn't want to hurt you."

Cait closed her eyes and thought for a minute. When she opened them, she said, "All right, we'll get in touch with Archangel, but it has to be done so that no one knows about it."

"String will see to that. Just remember that he's only now realizing that he has a son and he won't let anything happen to him," Dom told Cait.


	5. Chapter 5

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 5

Hawke watched as Dom and Cait came to the door of her condo. Dom hugged her again and then walked down to where String was standing by the car.

"I'm going to go and talk to Archangel and see if he can help us out with this. You want to come or stay here?" Dom asked.

Hawke looked back at the front door to Cait's condo and with a heavy sigh said, "I'll stay here if you don't mind. I don't think that Cait should be alone right now. Maybe the guy who has Nicky will call while you're gone," he added hopefully.

Dom thumped him on the back, "Okay, just tread carefully. Cait's not feeling too sure of anything right now."

"Yeah."

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Dom said as he got into the car and drove away.

Hawke took a deep breath and started walking up to Cait's door. When he got to it, he paused and thought, ' _This won't be easy, Cait, but I will get him back."_ With that resolve fresh in his mind, he knocked on the door.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

As soon as Dom had left, Cait closed the door, sank down the wall to the floor, and started to cry. She knew that Hawke had been right about getting Archangel involved because they _would_ need his help. Whoever had Nicky wouldn't give him back because they would use him to force Hawke to fly missions for them. She didn't see any good outcome for anyone.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

When Hawke didn't get any response from knocking on the door, he tried the door handle and was surprised to find it open. He stepped back into the living room and immediately he spotted Cait sitting up against the wall crying.

Without thinking, he went over to her, sat on the floor beside her, and took her into his arms—just holding her while she cried.

After crying for about 10 minutes, Cait finally stopped. It was then that she realized where she was and who was holding her. Cait started to push against the arms that were holding her, but she met with resistance when she tried to get up.

"Just stay here for a while until you've calmed down. This whole thing has got to be a shock to you," Hawke said to Cait while he rubbed her back.

Cait hid her face into Hawke's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry that I hit you when you said that we needed to call in Archangel for help. I knew that you were right, but I just didn't want to admit it." Cait looked up at Hawke and continued, "I just want Nicky back home safe and sound. I never realized it would be this bad. That he'd become a pawn to be used against us."

Hawke looked down at her, then pulled her in tightly for another hug, "I always knew that anyone I got close to could, and probably would, be used against me, especially since I took over flying Airwolf. I never wanted that to happen. I would never allow myself to let anyone get close to me because of that." Then thinking to himself, _'Except you. I let you get close to me—too close—and look what's happened! I cared about you too much and someone has taken advantage of that fact. I've got to get Nicky back for you if it's the last thing I do.'_

Hawke continued to hold Cait trying to comfort her. He knew that he would need to bring Nicky back to Cait no matter what it cost him. He owed her that much.


	6. Chapter 6

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 6

A few hours later, Dom, Archangel, and Marella showed up at Cait's condominium. Hawke let them in shortly after they knocked.

"How's Cait doing?" Marella asked as soon as she got inside.

Hawke looked over to where Cait was sitting and said, "Not the greatest, but she's got things under control now."

"Good."

Archangel went over to where Cait was sitting and told her, "We're here to figure out how to get Nicky back without him getting hurt."

Cait looked up at him and said, "Thank you."

"Let's get started," Archangel said as everyone came over and sat around the dining room table.

"Cait, has anyone gotten in touch with you since the first message?" Archangel asked.

Cait just shook her head and responded, "No. Not since I went to pick him up at the day care center yesterday. What are they waiting for?" she asked desperately.

"I think they'll get in touch with you tonight. They had to figure in time for Hawke to get here from Van Nuys, so my guess is they'll call tonight," Archangel offered.

Cait nodded, "I hope so because this waiting is killing me."

Hawke moved over to stand behind Caitlin offering her his support.

"Michael, what do you have for us to use to track Nicky?" Hawke questioned as he turned to face Archangel.

Michael nodded to Marella to take over the conversation. "We've got two small tracking devices which can be used to send us a location as soon as you find Nicky. You can put one on him and keep one yourself. That'll help us to locate both of you and go in for a rescue attempt. Even if they check you for tracking devices when you land in Airwolf, they won't be able to find these devices until they are activated. Then we can go in and get you both out."

"All right. Show me how to activate the devices so we'll be ready when they call," Hawke answered her.

Marella reached into her pocket and pulled out two very small devices which she held in her hand. Hawke moved over beside her so he could see what she had pulled out. Holding one of the devices in her hand, she showed him how to activate it.

"Make sure once you activate it, that you put it somewhere near where Nicky will be. It is close to being indestructible. You can put it in water, under a brick, etc. and it should still send out a strong signal," Marella explained to Hawke. "If worse comes to worse, you can even feed it to Nicky so that it stays right with him. Just make sure that you activate it first."

Hawke took both devices and examined them closely. Finally satisfied that they'd perform as Marella had described, he put them in his pocket.

"Any questions?"

Hawke shook his head and felt for the devices in his pocket. He wanted to make sure that he didn't lose them because both Nicky's life and his life depended on them being used.

Just then the phone rang startling everyone. Archangel motioned for Cait to answer the phone. Hawke moved over beside her to offer support as she answered the phone, "Hello."

"Just listen. I'm assuming that Hawke has been in touch with you, so I will go on the premise that he's there. Tell him to get Airwolf and to fly to Scottie's Castle in the next three hours. When he gets there, he's to wait for further instructions. He is not to be in touch with anyone and he is to be in Airwolf alone or the kid dies. You got that?"

Cait had tears running down her face as she answered, "Yes. How do I know that he's all right?" she asked desperately.

The man at the other end of the phone line just laughed and said, "You're going to have to take my word on that."

Hawke took the phone from Cait and told the man, "As soon as I get to wherever you're holding Nicky, I want to be able to call Cait and tell her that he's all right. You either agree to that or it's no deal!"

Cait tried to grab the phone back from him, but he held it out of her reach.

Laughing, the man said, "You can call her when you get here— _just get here_!" and he hung up the phone.

Cait looked at Hawke like she wanted to hit him again. He calmly said trying to reassure her, "I want you to know that he's all right. I don't want you sitting around here worrying. This way you'll have my assurance that he's okay," he said as he held her gaze.

This seemed to calm her down somewhat.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Everyone except for Cait had moved outside to stand by the car and discuss any last minute details.

Hawke glanced back at the condo and then said, "I'll be back in a minute. I left something inside." With that he moved back towards the condo.

Going inside, he found Cait in the kitchen crying. Slowly he moved over to her and took her in his arms. "Everything is going to be okay, Cait. I _will_ bring Nicky back to you," Hawke said as he held her.

Cait looked up at Hawke and said, "How do you know that you can do that?"

Hawke put his finger under Cait's chin and moved her face so that she was looking directly at him, "I promise you that I will bring Nicky home to you! I'll make them let me call you every day and we can set up a code word that will let you know that everything is all right."

Cait nodded.

"If everything is going okay, I'll just say that he's fine. If I need you to be patient for a couple of days, I'll tell you to be patient. When I'm going to get things moving, I'll change what I say."

Cait said again, "But how do I _know_ that you can do that?"

"Have I ever broken a promise that I made to you?"

After a few minutes, Cait said, "No."

"Then you can count on it," he said bringing a small smile to Cait's face. Hawke bent down quickly and kissed Cait before he turned and left the condo.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

"You all set to go?" Dom asked Hawke when he came back out.

"Yeah. You going to stay here with Cait?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, let's go get Nicky and bring him back," he said as he took a quick glance back at the condo.


	7. Chapter 7

_I hope that this chapter answers a lot of your questions. This seemed like the appropriate place to put this in._

 _I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 7

Stringfellow Hawke had been flying Airwolf for about 20 minutes. During all of that time, he had been reviewing what he had to do on this mission for everything to work. He was finally satisfied that he had everything down that he figured he'd have to face. Now came the difficult part… How to kill the time between now and when he landed at Scottie's Castle?

His mind started to drift—drifting back to ten months ago. Back when he and Cait had gone on the mission to South America to save the diplomat, her husband, and their two young daughters. They'd arrived in the vicinity of the mansion and had landed Airwolf nearby. After securing her, they'd made their way to the mansion. It had seemed strange that no one was guarding the mansion, but when they'd made their way inside, they understood… No one was guarding the house because everyone inside was dead. He and Cait had moved the bodies to Airwolf to transport them home for burial. Moving the two adults had been difficult, but nothing compared to moving the two little girls. They'd only been 3 and 5 years old!

After they'd dropped the bodies off at Knightsbridge, he and Cait had put Airwolf back in her Lair and then retreated to the cabin to try to make sense out of what had happened.

Neither of them felt like eating anything, so they'd just sat on the couch. Finally, Cait couldn't take the silence anymore so she had started talking about what had happened on the mission. Wondering if they'd been earlier, would everyone still be alive? Cait kept trying to make sense as to why the family had been killed, but they couldn't make any sense out of it. She'd started crying and Hawke had held her. Running his hands down her back gently as she cried. When she was all cried out, he'd kept holding her as if he needed something to ground him.

It had gotten late, but when Cait moved to get up, he'd held on. Turning her around, he'd kissed her. That was the start. The kiss had opened up the passion and need for one another that they'd been denying since they'd met. After making love, they'd fallen asleep where they were on the couch. Waking up again in the middle of the night, they'd moved upstairs and reignited their passion—looking to each other for comfort from the horrible scene they'd been a part of earlier in the day.

Hawke had woken up the following morning with Cait in his arms. It had felt right. Lying there in his bed holding onto her. He'd watched her sleep. When she'd finally awoken, they'd made love again. Hawke was ready to tell Cait that he loved her, when they were interrupted by a call from Archangel requesting that they come into Knightsbridge for a debriefing. They'd gone into Knightsbridge and been so deflated when it was over that they'd each gone their separate ways. Pulling back into themselves to try to mask over the pain that they still felt.

It had gone on like that for five months—until Caitlin had left. Now he knew why she had left. She must have gotten pregnant five months before and she'd been afraid to tell him. Afraid that Hawke might suggest that she have an abortion. Hawke remembered a few times when she had spoken to him about children and how he'd said that they were out of the question for him because they could be used against him while he was flying Airwolf.

Why hadn't he told Cait that he loved her and that he always had that day even after they'd been interrupted by Archangel? It had been the perfect opportunity, but he'd let it go. Now he had to set things right because he and Cait had a son, and he did love Cait—had always loved her.

Thinking back to the pictures of Nicky that Dom had shown him back in Van Nuys brought a grin to Hawke's face. It looked like Nicky was going to be just like him—at least as far as looks were concerned. Hawke and Cait would have their hands full if his personality was anything like his had been when he was growing up…

Just then a call came in from Archangel interrupting his thoughts.

Taking a deep breath, Hawke growled out, "Yeah. What do you want?"

Taken aback by the tone, Archangel responded, "Hawke, are you ready for what you're going to face when you get to Scottie's Castle?"

"Yeah…," he paused and took a deep breath. "I'm going to get Nicky back for Caitlin just like I promised her I would," he said as he resolved things in his mind. Hawke's mind was now once again on the task at hand. He quickly shifted the other thoughts into the back of his mind to be dealt with later when this was all over.

"Do you need anything?"

"No."

Archangel was not thrilled to hear Hawke becoming so business-like, but he guessed that he knew what he was doing. "Good luck and we'll see you on the other side."

Hawke turned off the radio because Scottie's Castle had just come into view.


	8. Chapter 8

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 8

Stringfellow Hawke hovered Airwolf over Scottie's Castle trying to see what was waiting for him. Using the night vision, he spotted 8 men lying in wait for him. _'They probably aren't the welcoming committee,'_ he thought. _'Might as well land and get on with this.'_

As soon as Airwolf landed beside Scottie's Castle, six men came out of hiding to cover him. Their leader motioned for him to shut Airwolf down and get out of the helicopter.

The leader moved over towards Hawke with his gun in his hand. "Turn around and spread them so we can search you."

As soon as Hawke was turned around, the man motioned for one of the other fellows to search him. When he was done, the man who had search Hawke gestured for Hawke to walk over towards the leader.

Ignoring Hawke, he told his men, "Search the helicopter. Be sure that no one is hiding inside."

Immediately, the men swarmed over Airwolf searching for anyone who might be hidden inside her, but they found nothing.

The leader signaled for the remaining two men to come out of hiding. He then pointed to two other men and told them to get into Airwolf in the back. Next, he told all but one man to get into their own helicopter which they had hidden behind Scottie's Castle. "Okay, Hawke, get inside."

Once Hawke was settled inside Airwolf, the leader went around to the passenger's side and got in. After buckling up, he pointed his rifle at Hawke and told him to start up Airwolf.

Finally, when all systems had come on line, he told Hawke to take the helicopter up into the air and head south/southeast.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

After they had been flying for around 65 minutes, the leader pointed out a ranch off in the distance and told Hawke to land in the yard not too far from the barn.

As soon as Airwolf landed, it was surrounded by gun toting guards.

"Shut her down and get out," the leader told Hawke.

When he'd shut Airwolf down, he got out and stood next to Airwolf wondering what would happen next.

Hawke didn't have long to wait before he saw John Bradford Horn moving towards him. ' _Well that answers the question of who was behind this,"_ Hawke thought. _'Now I just need to find Nicky and get out of here."_

Horn ignored Hawke and went to inspect Airwolf.

"She's still as beautiful as ever and just as deadly," Horn said while he was staring at Airwolf.

When Hawke didn't respond, Horn turned back to him and said, "Just as forthcoming as always, but this time you'll pay dearly."

Hawke just continued to stare straight ahead.

"Shoot him!" The order came as a complete surprise to Hawke as he heard the guns being raised in his direction and before he knew what was happening, he felt something hit him in the right side and he went down.

As he was losing consciousness, his last thought was, _'This wasn't supposed to happen. How can I rescue Nicky now? I've let Cait down.'_


	9. Chapter 9

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 9

Caitlin O'Shaunnessy set down the plate of food in front of Dominic Santini and took her seat. Both of them just stared at the food instead of eating it.

Getting up from the table, Cait started pacing the room. "Why hasn't he called?" Cait asked out of desperation. "It's been two days since he left. I would have thought that we'd of heard from him by now!"

Dom stopped pushing his food around and got up to stop Cait from pacing. "You know that he'll call as soon as he can. He knows how important Nicky is to you."

Cait hung her head and replied, "Yes, I guess that he does. I just wish that he'd call."

Dom took hold of her arm and steered her back into her chair. "You need to sit down and eat something so that when String does call, you'll be able to do something about it. Right?"

Cait looked up at Dom and smiled. "Yeah, I know that you're right."

"Okay, so let's dig into the food."

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Stringfellow Hawke slowly regained consciousness—or at least he thought that he had. Wherever he was, it was as black as night. He couldn't see a thing. The first thing he did was to try to assess his situation. He couldn't find any wounds on his right side, just a large welt. ' _I wonder what caused that?'_ Not finding any other injuries, he slowly stood up and moved forward until he ran into a wall. Running his hands along the wall, he went around the edge of a very small room.

' _Well, I don't know where I am, what day it is, or even what time it is. At least I'm not dead,'_ he assumed. _'This isn't getting me anywhere! I need to find out where Nicky is and get him out.'_

Hawke found what he thought was the door and started pounding on it. After pounding for 15 minutes, he gave up and sat down on the floor.

After a while, he found that he couldn't tell when he was awake or when he was asleep because of the darkness. Time just stood still.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke was jarred awake when the door opened and let some light into his cell. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he was up in an instant and went over to the door to see who had opened it.

When he got out in the hallway, he put his hand up in front of his eyes because he couldn't see anything because of the bright light.

Next, he heard someone's voice saying, "Follow me."

Hawke blinked a few times and started to follow the man down the hallway. Finally, he was shown into Horn's office to face Horn.

"Sit down."

Hawke sat down in the chair facing Horn waiting to hear what would happen next.

"Are you ready to start piloting Airwolf wherever I want you to?" Horn asked.

Knowing that he had no other choice, Hawke said, "Yes."

"Good. I want you to pilot Airwolf down to Columbia to deliver some money to some business associates of mine and bring back a package," Horn paused as what he said sank in with Hawke. "Any problems?"

Hawke knew what his answer had to be, "No."

Horn looked at Hawke and said, "You're dismissed."

Hawke knew that now was the time to bring Nicky into the discussion so that he could see if he was really here. As he stood up, he said, "I want to see Nicky before I fly Airwolf anywhere. Once I see him, I'll fly your mission for you."

Horn turned around to face him as he commented, "How do I know that you'll fly the mission after you see him?"

Hawke thought for a moment, "You don't."

The two men stared at one another—each one daring the other to blink first.

Finally, Horn said, "I guess it won't hurt for you to see him." He motioned for one of his guards to go out and get Nicky.

A few minutes later, the guard returned ushering a young woman in with a toddler in her arms. The young woman went over to where Horn was standing. Horn looked at the toddler and then told the woman to leave the room.

"All right, you've seen him—so now go and fly my mission."

Hawke turned around to face Horn again and bit out, "That wasn't him. I'm not going to fly your mission until I know for certain that Nicky is here. Produce him for me now!"

Horn came over to where Hawke was standing and taunted him by saying, "How do you know that isn't your son since you've never met him?"

"I know," Hawke growled out.

Horn again signaled for the guard to go out and bring in Nicky. This time when the young woman came in, she had Nicky in her arms.

Hawke started to move towards him, but stopped immediately when the guards raised their guns and pointed them at Nicky.

From behind him, Horn said, "I would stop unless you want him shot."

Hawke turned back to face Horn and said, "I don't want anything to happen to him."

"That's good because then he's a good bargaining tool for me to have," he laughed. "Take him out."

The young woman left with Nicky leaving Hawke behind with Horn and a few guards. "Have I made myself clear about what will happen to him if you do anything wrong?"

"Perfectly," Hawke paused then decided to push on. "I'll fly any missions for you as long as I get to see him for a half an hour each day and during that time we can call his mother so she can see for herself that he's okay."

"Why would I agree to that," Horn asked skeptically.

"Because if you do that, then you won't have any problems from me. I just want to spend some time with my son," Hawke answered truthfully.

"We'll see," he said. Then turning to the guards, he yelled, "Take him out to Airwolf and get it ready for the mission. Two of you are to go with him to be sure that he does it right."

With that, Horn dismissed Hawke.


	10. Chapter 10

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

 _I want to apologize for not writing before, but I had to put my dog down a week ago yesterday and I haven't felt like writing. It was a difficult decision because he was only 7 years old and had been enjoying great health. My son and I had gotten him about a month before he went into the Air Force and he was my constant companion. I will miss him!_

Chapter 10

Hawke landed Airwolf after finishing the mission. It had been a long ride down to Columbia and a long ride back. He knew that he had transported drugs back to New Mexico, but he couldn't think about that right now.

When he got out of the helicopter, two armed guards were there to meet him and escort him back to his cell and the darkness. He went inside without raising a fuss because he knew if he didn't, then Nicky would pay.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Again, the door opened and let in some light. The guards beckoned for him to come out. He was blinded as before when he came out and just proceeded down the hallway towards Horn's office.

When he went inside, Horn was at his desk; working, ignoring him. He stood for about 15 minutes waiting for Horn to address him. Horn finally turned to him and motioned for him to sit down.

"You did well on the mission last night," Horn commented to him. "Any problems?"

"No—none."

"Good because I've got another one for you to do tonight," Horn told him before turning to the guards. "Take him back to his cell until it's time for him to go," Horn directed.

Hawke fought against the guards and yelled, "Wait! Before I go, I want to see Nicky."

Horn just motioned for the guards to take him out and went back to his work.

Hawke struggled against the guards, but they hit him over the head and dragged him back to his cell.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke again lost track of time when he came to in his cell. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious or even what time of day it was, but he knew the guards would be back soon enough to get him to do another mission for Horn. He had to decide before then whether he would push to see Nicky or just fly the mission.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

When Horn's guards came to get Hawke from his cell, he let them lead him docilely towards Airwolf. When he got out to her, Horn came out and spoke to him, "You're going on this mission to bring money down to Columbia and to bring back drugs. Any questions?"

"No, but..."

"Good," Horn interrupted him. "Now get going and I expect you to be back before dawn," Horn told him.

Hawke slowly climbed into Airwolf as two of the guards climbed in with him.

Just before closing the door, Horn came over and taunted him, "You do this mission right and I'll let you see your son."

Hawke breathed a sigh of relief because that was what he had been hoping for.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Exhausted, Hawke landed Airwolf in Horn's compound. The two guards got out and motioned for him to get out. As they started to walk back towards Hawke's cell, one of the other guards came out shouting, "Take him in to see Mr. Horn. He wants to see him right now."

Hawke felt a sense of relief that he was not going back into that cell right away. He moved down the hallway toward Horn's office, but the new guards directed him into the dining room where he found Horn seated at the table having his breakfast.

"Sit down," Horn spoke to him. "You've completed two missions for me without any problems so you'll get a reward." Turning to the guards, he spoke quickly, "Bring his son in."

Hawke was so excited that he couldn't have eaten if he had wanted to.

Hawke sat very still waiting for the guards to bring Nicky in. Instead the woman whom he had seen earlier returned carrying him. She walked over to Hawke and handed him Nicky.

Hawke looked down at _his_ son that he was holding. Gazing at him like he'd disappear if he took his eyes off him, he forgot all else that was around him and just concentrated on Nicky. "Hey, Nicky," he whispered at a loss as to what to say.

Nicky gazed back at him and reached out to grip his finger, then stuffed it into his mouth. He seemed to be very content to just sit there quietly in his arms.

Hawke started talking to him very quietly. Soothing and comforting him. He took a couple of spoonfuls of scrambled eggs from the plate and fed them to him. When he stopped, Nicky started looking for something more to eat. Hawke spotted some yogurt on the table and started feeding him that.

At that moment, the girl who had brought Nicky in, came over to take him out of Hawke's arms. Hawke started to balk, but then thought better of it as he knew if he ever wanted to see Nicky again, he needed to do whatever Horn said. He reached over and kissed Nicky good-by, whispering, "I love you and I'll see you again soon."

The girl started to walk away with Nicky, but he started to fuss. Hawke started to get up to calm Nicky, but the guards pointed their weapons at Nicky so he sat back down at the table. Forlornly, he watched as Nicky left the room with the young girl.

"Can I run a video call to his mother so she can see that he's all right?" Hawke requested of Horn.

"You've seen for yourself that your son is all right," Horn stated matter-of-factly. "Now, I've got another mission for you tonight. Maybe when that one is over, I'll let you send a video to her."

Hawke turned in Horn's direction, "Whatever you say," Hawke agreed reluctantly.


	11. Chapter 11

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 11

"Hey, Caitlin, your computer is making a weird noise," Dom yelled to Caitlin who was in her bedroom.

Cait came running into the living room area to look at the computer. "It's Skype," she uttered while holding her breath. She immediately hit the key to turn on Skype and saw Hawke holding Nicky on the screen.

She just stood there staring at them without saying a word. Finally, Cait murmured, "Nicky!"

Hawke responded to her comment with, "Cait. It's good to see you. I just need to tell you a few things before we get started. First, I only have two minutes. Second, if you make any attempt to try to track this transmission, they will hurt Nicky. Do you understand?"

Cait shook her head up and down. Finally, she found her voice and asked, "How is Nicky doing?"

"He's doing fine," Hawke told her. "He's got a nice girl looking after him, by the grace of God."

Cait reached out and touched Nicky on the screen. He seemed so real and like he was in the room with her. She couldn't take her eyes off him.

Dom came up behind her and asked, "String, are you both all right?"

Hawke drew his eyes away from Cait's face and focused on Dom. "Yeah, we're both doing all right." He paused for a minute and then went on, "You heard what I told Cait that we only have two minutes and that you can't make any attempt to track the source of this transmission?"

"Yeah. Where are…"

Hawke interrupted Dom, "I can't answer any questions like that, so don't ask them."

"All right."

"Look, our time is just about up but I swear by the grace of God that I will continue to take good care of Nicky. Cait, I won't let anything happen to him," Hawke answered as he pulled Nicky closer.

Cait found her voice and said, "Tell him that I miss him…and kiss him good night for me, please!"

Hawke looked back at Cait. "I will take good care of him and bring him…"

The screen went blank.

"No, no, they can't do that!" she cried out trying to bring Skype back up as she started to cry.

Dom pulled her in for a hug and just held her while she cried.

Finally, she pulled back and ran her hands across her face to try to dry the tears. "You okay now?" Dom asked.

"Yeah. I just needed to cry, but I'll be all right."

"Okay, we need to figure out if he sent us any kind of a message when he was talking," Dom explained.

Cait shook her head and responded, "He just said that they were both all right and that the Skype conversations would only last for two minutes. Then he said something about we couldn't try to find the source of the transmissions."

Dom looked at Cait, "He also said something about someone taking care of Nicky. What did he say?"

Cait thought for a minute before responding, "Something about a girl taking care of him."

"Yeah, but he said something strange after that. What was it? It was a phrase that I'd never heard him use before."

Dom and Cait looked at each other, but couldn't think what Hawke had said. Finally, giving up, Cait said, "I don't remember. I was so focused on Nicky and the fact that he was okay. I'm sorry, Dom."

"That's okay, sweetheart. It will come back to you. Right now we need to call Archangel and tell him about the conversation."

"Okay."

"I'll call him. You stay nearby in case I forget anything."

Dom went over to the phone and dialed Archangel's private number. It was picked up almost immediately. "Hello, Archangel, here."

"Michael, this is Dom. Cait just got a Skype message from String."

"Okay. What did he say?"

"First, String had Nicky with him and we could see that they both were all right. Next, he said he could only talk for two minutes and that if we attempted to track the transmission that Nicky would be hurt. He also said that a young girl was watching Nicky when he wasn't. Cait, do you remember anything else?" Dom asked as he turned to Cait.

"No, I think you pretty much covered everything," Cait answered.

Dom turned back to the telephone and told Archangel, "He said something else when he was talking about the girl that was watching Nicky, but neither of us can remember what it was."

"Okay. Call me back when you remember what he said," Archangel stated.

"All right," Dom said when he hung up the phone. "Cait, we'll remember what he said."

"I just hope that it won't be too late."

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke turned away from the computer still holding Nicky.

Horn came forward and related, "That was good. Not too long and you didn't say anything suspicious. You can have five more minutes with your son."

' _Gee thanks!'_ Hawke thought. _'Could you spare the time?'_ But he knew that he wouldn't be seeing Nicky for too much longer so he took him over to a place on the floor and played with him.

Before he knew it, the girl was coming to get Nicky from him. Hawke stood up and kissed Nicky good-bye before handing him to the girl. As he watched Nicky leaving, he just hoped that Dom and Cait had gotten his message and they knew who they were dealing with.


	12. Chapter 12

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 12

The next day around noon time, Cait and Dom got a similar call from Hawke. He again told them that Nicky was okay and repeated the guidelines about the phone call. Before he hung up, he again said, "The girl was taking care of Nicky by the grace of God."

When the call was over, Cait and Dom sat down to discuss what was said.

"Cait, he said that a 'girl was taking care of Nicky by the grace of God.' I have never heard him use that phrase before so there must be a clue in it."

"Okay, Dom, what was unusual in what he said?"

"String said, 'by the grace of God,'" Dom repeated slowly. "The only unusual word in that phrase is 'grace.' What do you suppose he means by that?"

Dom and Cait thought about the word 'grace' but couldn't come up with anything. "Have we dealt with anyone by the name of Grace?"

Cait's face suddenly lit up. "Oh my God! You've hit on it, Dom."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you remember the last time we dealt with Horn, he killed a girl named Grace," Cait exclaimed.

Dom's face lit up as he said, "You're right! So, now we know that we're dealing with Horn." But then he got a grim look on his face as he realized what he'd said. "We need to call Michael, now!"

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

"All right. I'll get together all the information that the Firm has on Horn and let you know what we find out," Michael responded. "I don't know how this is going to help us, but at least it's a start."

"Michael, keep in touch," Cait emphasized to him.

Cait hung up the phone and turned to Dom. "Now we need to figure out how to get the message to Hawke that we got his message," Cait murmured. "How do we do that?"

Dom looked at Cait and said, "I don't know, yet. Let's think on it and maybe we'll come up with something."

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

A couple of hours later, both Cait and Dom were exhausted and still hadn't come up with anything.

"The only thing I can think of is to talk about getting lost on a walk in the desert," Cait offered hopefully. "Do you think he'll get it?

"Yeah, I think that he'll get it because he is looking for us to say something," Dom said as he yawned. "Okay. Let's wrap this up and go to bed."

Cait looked up and said, "You go ahead. I want to do a couple of things before I go up."

"Sure, sweetheart. Go up to bed when you're ready." Dom leaned down and gave Cait a hug and a kiss goodnight.

Cait watched as Dom went upstairs to bed. She picked up her glass of wine and went out onto the deck and settled into a chair. As soon as she sat down, the tears started.

When they stopped, she started to say a prayer, "God, please help Hawke watch out for Nicky. He's only a baby. He's never hurt anyone. Please don't let anything happen to him." Determinedly, she stood up and drained the last of her wine. "He's in your hands—yours and Hawke's!"

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Hawke was back in his cell after flying the money down to Columbia and bringing the drugs back again. He hated to do that, but it was the only way that he could keep Nicky safe and that was what he had to do—for now.

' _I hope that Cait and Dom got the message that I sent to them,'_ he thought. _'I don't know how much good it will do them to know that but at least it's something. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to figure a way out to tell them that we are in New Mexico. Can't think about that right now, I just need to sleep.'_

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Around 4 a.m., the guards came and got Hawke out of bed and marched him down the hallway. They took him into the room where the computer was set up to Skype with Cait. Shortly, the girl came into the room with Nicky who was crying and gave him to Hawke.

"I'm sorry that he's crying, but he wouldn't stop. I think it's just because he's been woken up so early. Really, I am sorry," the girl stammered out as she handed over Nicky.

Hawke took Nicky from her and started trying to soothe him. "It's okay. I know this isn't your idea. By the way, my name is Stringfellow Hawke. What's your name?"

The girl stared at him with a peculiar look on her face. It was almost like she couldn't believe that someone was being nice to her. Bowing her head, she whispered, "Nadine."

"Thank you, Nadine. I appreciate your help."

At that moment, the guard came over and turned on Skype connecting the call with Cait. It rang for a long time, before Cait answered it.

"Hawke?"

"Yea, Cait. It's me…and Nicky."

"Thank God. Dom went out for a long walk in the desert yesterday and I thought that I was going to have to call the police to find him. He just seemed to be stumbling around until I found him. He wasn't doing so hot, so I took him to see a doctor. Fortunately, he's fine," Cait said everything quickly hoping that Hawke would get her message.

Hawke nodded back to Cait letting her know that he'd gotten the message. Now he needed to figure out how to tell Cait where they were.

"How have you been doing Cait?" he asked to try to think.

"How do you think I've been doing?" she practically yelled at him. "I'm worried sick about Nicky…and you. I can't imagine what you must be going through." By then she had calmed down some.

"Have you tried any of those new tacos from that new restaurant a block down from where you work yet?" Hawke asked hoping that she would pick up on his reference to "new" and the fact that the restaurant was a Mexican restaurant.

"No, I haven't had any time," she sighed not thinking about it.

"Well, make sure you try out the new tacos. Dom and I had some when we were waiting for you and they were great," Hawke intoned.

Hawke saw that Cait suddenly understood that he was trying to pass along another message.

"Okay. Take care and Nicky sends his love. He isn't very happy about being woken up at 4 a.m., but he'll be fine. Bye for now," Hawke said.

"Keep him safe," Cait mumbled as she reached out to touch him. Then Nicky and Hawke disappeared.

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

As soon as Cait had hung from her conversation with Hawke, she ran upstairs to wake up Dom. "Dom, Dom, come on. Get up. I think that Hawke was trying to send us another message."

"What…?" Dom muttered still trying to wake up.

"Hawke just called and he kept talking about a new taco at a place near where I work. The only thing there is a new Mexican restaurant. What does that have to do with anything?" exasperated Cait sat down.

"New Mexican restaurant? I don't…"

Cait suddenly realized what he'd said and she jumped up. "They're in New Mexico!" she shouted. "That's got to be it! He also said that it was 4 a.m. and it's 5 a.m. here. There's a difference of one time zone between here and New Mexico. It's got to be New Mexico!"

Cait turned and started to run out of the room.

Dom yelled at her to stop and asked, "Where are you going?"

"To call Michael and give him the news. We've got a little more information for him to work on. We need everything we can get if we're going to get them both back." Resolutely, Cait turned and ran downstairs to call Michael.


	13. Chapter 13

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

 _Sorry about the delay, but I have been over in The Netherlands helping my son get settled into his apartment._

Chapter 13

For the next three days, Cait got similar phone calls from Hawke although they came at different times. Each day she saw that Nicky was doing all right and was pleased with that fact.

Today, Cait was anxious for Hawke to call her. She had cleaned the house completely once and was going back to do it a second time when Dom stopped her.

"Cait, you need to sit down and relax for a while," Dom told her from a distance. "He'll call as soon as he can."

Cait paused and sat down with a big sigh. "I know, Dom. It's just that something is bothering me and I can't put my finger on what it is! I've got so much energy and cleaning helps to work some of it off."

Dom thought for a minute before he suggested, "Why don't you go and fix something for supper. That would give you something to do."

Cait glanced at him and laughed, "Yeah, you're right. That would give me something to do. I'll go and make us some chicken salad sandwiches for supper."

Dom wasn't really happy with chicken salad sandwiches for supper, but it was better than watching Cait move restlessly around the apartment.

Cait went into the kitchen to start supper when her computer started making a noise. She ran back into the living room and logged onto Skype to see Hawke and Nicky staring back at her.

"I didn't think you'd call," she breathed out as she pulled up a chair in front of the computer.

"Sorry I'm so late, but this is the first chance that I was given to call you," Hawke apologized quickly. "It's been a busy day around here."

The conversation continued until just a couple of seconds was left. Hawke had some Cheerios in his hand which he was feeding to Nicky. Hawke pulled something out of his hand, held it so Cait could see it, and then fed it to Nicky. Cait saw it and gasped, then Hawke surprised Cait by saying, "Cait, I love you. Take care."

"What…?" as the screen went blank. "Hawke, Hawke!" Cait screamed as she stood up.

Dom reached out and grabbed a hold of Cait. "Cait, what's wrong?"

"Hawke ended the transmission differently than he usually does. Something is going to happen today," she sobbed.

"What do you mean?" Dom asked.

Cait turned to face Dom and said, "He usually ends the conversation by telling me that Nicky is fine. Today he ended it by saying something different. He was feeding Nicky Cheerios and then he fed him the homing device. Something is going to happen today! We need to contact Michael right away!"

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Michael hung up the phone after talking with Cait and Dom. He reached over and pressed the intercom summoning Marella into his office.

"Marella, I just got off the phone with Cait and Dom," Michael started telling her. "They said that Hawke gave the homing device to Nicky so we should be able to find out where they are and go in. Get the Zebra Squad ready to move down in New Mexico."

As Marella was leaving the office, the phone rang. Michael reached over and answered the phone. "Yes," he paused. "All right. Send in Zebra Squad right away." Then he hung up the phone and turned to Marella. "They've located where they are. They're just outside of Artesia, New Mexico. You ready to go?"

"Yes sir," she responded as she turned to leave the room, but stopped and turned back towards Michael when she got to the door. "Sir, should I arrange transportation to New Mexico for everyone?"

Michael thought for a moment and then said, "Yes. Send a chopper down to pick up Dom and Cait, then arrange something for us to fly down there."

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

Cait and Dom arrived just outside of Artesia just after 7 p.m. When they landed, they immediately went to where Michael and Marella were standing.

"What's going on?" Dom asked quickly.

Michael turned to them and said, "The Zebra Squad moved in about 15 minutes ago. We should hear something from them soon. We just need to wait."

"All right."

The next five minutes went by like five hours, but then Michael's communication link sounded. When he answered it, he listened for about a minute then turned to Cait and Dom. "Everything's secure. They have Nicky and he's safe. They're bringing him here."

Cait turned to Dom and hugged him—holding on for his support while they waited. A couple of minutes went by before they saw a Jeep heading towards where they were. When the Jeep came to a halt, Cpt. Smeltz leapt out holding Nicky. Cait immediately ran to him and took Nicky in her arms.

"Is he all right?" Dom wanted to know.

Cait looked him over carefully and smiled, "I think so," she said as she hugged him to her, hanging on as if her life depended upon it.

Dom stood beside her, rubbing Nicky's back when he suddenly thought about Hawke. "Where's Hawke?" he asked of anyone who'd listen.

Cpt. Smeltz came forward again and reported to Michael, "There was no sign of Cpt. Hawke in the building near the baby. We only had the one signal to locate on, sir. There was no other signal."

"Well, then where is he?" Dom demanded.

"I don't know."

Michael was puzzled as to where Hawke was, but he needed to complete the mission here before he worried about that. "Cait, Nicky needs to go back to the clinic to be checked out by the doctors. Dom, we're going to go up to the compound and see if we can find out where Hawke is. Do you want to go with Cait or with us?"

Dom looked over at Cait waiting for her decision. "Go with Michael and see if you can find Hawke. We'll see you back in Van Nuys," she said as she came over to Dom to give him a quick hug and a kiss before heading back to the helicopter with Cpt. Smeltz.

Dom turned to Michael and stated, "Okay. Let's get up there and see what's going on!"

AWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW

An hour later, Dom, Michael, and Marella met together in the living room of the house.

"From what we can tell, Horn was basing his operations out of this house up until a short time ago. We found an underground passage that he probably used to escape when we got here." Michael turned to Dom as he said, "There was no sign of Hawke anywhere on the property. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, sorry doesn't cut it. Where is he?"

"I don't know, but we're questioning some of Horn's people and maybe one of them will know something," Michael reassured Dom. "Let's get going with the questioning."


	14. Chapter 14

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 14

Michael stood in the doorway to the room where Nicky had been taken after he'd been examined by the doctors. He motioned for Dom to come out into the hallway to talk to him.

"What did you find out?" Dom asked quietly.

"A couple of Horn's men said that Hawke took off in Airwolf about an hour and a half before our attack. He's taking automatic weapons down to Argentina," Michael answered.

"Well, what are you waiting for, go after him!" Dom replied raising his voice.

"It isn't that simple," Michael commented. "There are a lot of routes down to Argentina and we don't know which one he took. Airwolf, as you know, can fly undetected, plus he hasn't activated the other homing device. As soon as we find out where he is, we'll go after him," Michael reassured Dom.

"Let me know as soon as you find anything out. I'll be down here with Cait and Nicky," Dom answered. He started to say something else, but then decided against it and walked back into the room. Cait was sleeping on a cot that the nurse had set up for her and Nicky was asleep in the crib. They were both all right. He just prayed that String was too.

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Hawke was flying a roundabout route and slower than normal to get down to Argentina because he was waiting for word that the attack had gone as planned on Horn's hideout in New Mexico. He just had to be patient and wait for news.

Ten minutes later, the incoming call button flashed. Anxiously, he picked up the call before Horn's man could.

"What?"

"Let me talk to Jasper," the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Just a minute," Hawke replied. He turned in his seat and said, "It's for you."

"How do I get the call?" Jasper asked.

"You flick the third switch from the left. That should let you hear him," Hawke replied. ' _And it will let me listen in, too,"_ he thought.

"Jasper, there's been an attack on the compound in New Mexico. Horn wants you to finish delivering the weapons and then go to his compound in Guatemala. Watch out for trouble!"

"Okay. See you soon," Jasper replied and cut off the connection.

Hawke had a smile on his face as he plotted his next move. He switched on the auto-pilot and carefully grabbed the knife that was hidden down in the controls. Pretending that he hadn't heard the conversation, Hawke asked, "What did he want?"

"Nothing, just wanted to be sure we'd be getting there on time."

"Yeah, we'll get there on time," Hawke replied, then started counting down—3, 2, 1. When he hit one, he pivoted around in his seat and thrust the knife at Jasper catching him in the shoulder. Jasper already had his gun out and pointed at Hawke. He pulled the trigger as the knife connected with his shoulder. Hawke immediately turned his attention to the gun hoping to disarm Jasper before any more damage could be done inside Airwolf. They struggled for control of the gun as it went off 5 more times. Hawke then realized that Jasper had stopped struggling for control of the gun and fallen sideways in his seat towards the door.

' _Good, that's gotten him out of the picture. Now I need to fly this bird back home,'_ Hawke thought. He reached over and turned off the auto-pilot. It was then that he realized that he'd been hit too. He saw blood on the front of his flight suit and felt moisture dripping down his neck. This was not a good turn of events. He just needed to turn on the homing device, land Airwolf, and wait for the Firm to show up to rescue him.

Hawke tried to reach the homing device with his left hand, but found that he couldn't move his arm, so he reached with his right arm and finally managed to activate the device. A sickening feeling came over him as he pulled his arm back. ' _I'd better get this baby landed and fast or I won't make it,'_ he thought. Black spots started to interfere with his sight the closer he got to the ground and when he was still a hundred feet off the ground, he blacked out pitching the helicopter down into the ground with a loud crash.


	15. Chapter 15

_I am finally back from Europe and have just about finished moving. Everything happens at one time. Now, to write!_

 _I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 15

Michael came to the door of the room where Dom, Cait, and Nicky were and went in.

"Any word yet?" Dom asked right away.

"We have a fix on the other homing beacon. It's located down somewhere in Brazil," Michael imparted to them. "We've got a team on the way to see what's going on."

Dom groaned, "What do you think they'll find?"

Michael thought for a minute before he answered, "I don't know. Right now we don't even know where in Brazil they are, but the team will narrow it down and find out for us." He looked at Dom and Cait before he said, "If you want to follow along with what's going on as it happens, you can come up to my office. Otherwise, I'll send someone down with an update."

Dom got up, "I'm coming up. I want to know what's going on as it happens. Cait, you coming or staying down here?"

"Can I bring Nicky with me?"

"Sure you can," Dom told her.

"Okay. I'll be up as soon as I get Nicky's things together."

Dom and Michael left the room together and continued on toward the elevators. Once they were inside, Dom turned to Michael, "What haven't you told us yet? I know that you know more than what you said."

Hiding a smile, Michael replied, "What makes you think that?"

"I've been around you too long. So what's up?"

"We think that the helicopter either landed or crashed because the beacon hasn't moved since we located it about half an hour ago," Michael answered.

"Is that good or bad?" Dom queried.

Michael thought for a minute, then replied, "It could be either way. Until we get down there and see the situation, we won't know for sure. If it was landed, Hawke may have overpowered Horn's man that was with him. If it crashed… I don't know what we'll find."

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Michael, Marella, Dom, Cait, and Nicky had been sitting in Michael's office for about five and a half hours when the call came in from Zebra Squad. Michael immediately put the call on speaker phone. "What do you have to report?"

"We've located the homing device and we're closing in on it. We should be at the site in about an hour," Commander McKinley reported.

"Keep in touch with us and let us know what you find," Michael responded, then turned to everyone else and said, "We'll know what happened to Airwolf and Hawke in a little while."

Cait went over and picked up Nicky, then hugged him to herself as she said, "I pray that Hawke is all right. He saved Nicky. He's just got to be all right," she said as she started to cry.

Dom immediately went to her and tried to soothe her by saying, "He'll be fine. You know him. You just wait and see." Dom glanced at Michael and Marella to see if they agreed with him. They both nodded to him.

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Just over an hour later, the phone rang again. Michael picked it up and put it on speaker phone so everyone could hear. "What did you find?"

"We're just coming up on the helicopter. It looks like she crashed, but the damage isn't too bad."

Dom spoke up, "Any sign of String?"

"No. We're just getting to the helicopter and we'll let you know what we see."

The phone went silent as they heard men moving about in the distance. Unfortunately, they couldn't decipher what anyone was saying.

"Commander!" Michael said with impatience. "Commander! What's going on?"

"Oh, sorry. I forgot that you were still with us. We've got two men climbing up the side of the helicopter because it's down on its side. We'll let you know what we find out in just a minute."

Everyone was holding their breath waiting for the condition of the men inside Airwolf. They could hear the men talking in the background, but again they couldn't make out what was being said. Finally, Commander McKinley came back on the phone, "My men have reported that one of the men in the cockpit is dead. They're taking him out right now before they can get to the other man."

"Is it Hawke?" Cait asked breathlessly. "Please don't let it be Hawke."

McKinley came back on the phone, "No, the first man they brought out is not Capt. Hawke. I don't recognize the man."

Marella said what everyone was thinking, "It must be Horn's man. He must have gotten killed in the crash."

Again they listened to the talking in the background trying to figure out what was being said. Then McKinley was on the phone again, "They brought Capt. Hawke out. He's still alive, but not in very good shape. We need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible."

Michael turned to Marella, "What's the nearest hospital down near where they're located where they can get emergency care?"

Marella was already searching on her computer and found a hospital nearby. "Here, tell them to transport him to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Brasilia. That's the closest hospital that will be able to treat him."

"I got that," McKinley yelled. "We'll take good care of him and let you know when we get there."

"We're coming down to check on him," Michael told McKinley as he nodded at Marella to get working on arranging the details.

"All right. I'll see you there."

"Make sure that there are guards on him at the hospital. We don't want Horn anywhere near him," Michael reiterated.

"Copy that."

Michael hung up the phone and turned to face Dom and Cait. "We're flying down to Brasilia. Do either of you want to come with?"

Dom looked at Cait as he said, "Yeah. I'm coming with you. Cait, do you and Nicky want to come?"

Cait looked embarrassed when she said, "No. I don't think it's safe to take Nicky out of the country. I'll stay here and keep in touch with you by phone."

"Okay. I'll see you at the plane in half an hour," Michael said as he left the room.

Cait seemed uncomfortable now that Michael had left. She picked Nicky up and walked to the window facing the airfield. "Dom, I just don't feel safe leaving here even if it is going someplace with Michael and Marella. Horn is still out there somewhere and he could turn up anywhere."

"Cait, I know how you feel. You want to be both places at once, but you can't. You stay here and I'll keep in touch by phone and let you know what's going on," Dom said as he went over to her.

"Please tell him that Nicky and I love him," Cait said as she started to cry.

"He knows that," Dom said as he gave Cait a hug and then turned and left the room.

"I just hope that you get to tell him," Cait said with a heavy heart.


	16. Chapter 16

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 16

Dom, Michael, and Marella arrived at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil in the early evening. They rushed up to the surgery ward where they found McKinley waiting for them.

"What's happening with Hawke?" Michael anxiously asked McKinley as soon as he spotted him.

"Hawke's still in surgery. He's been in there just about since we got here about two hours ago."

"Any word on how he is?" Dom asked quickly.

"No, they're playing everything close to the chest."

Michael turned to Marella, "Go and see if you can find out anything." With that, Marella rushed off to see the nurse in charge of the surgery department.

Dom and Michael sat down to wait for Marella to return.

"How come Cait didn't come with you?" Michael ventured knowing that he might be walking into a mine field.

Dom thought for a couple of minutes before answering, "I think that she's afraid. Afraid of Horn, afraid of putting Nicky out there for someone to take advantage of, afraid of Hawke…"

"What do you mean afraid of Hawke?"

"I think she's afraid he might die and then she'll blame herself. Right now I think she's dealing with a lot of guilt—guilt about getting pregnant, then not telling Hawke about Nicky sooner, letting Hawke go after Nicky without a better plan,…" Dom stopped as he saw Marella coming back.

"What's going on?" Michael asked as soon as Marella reached them.

Marella looked like she would rather be any place but there as she said, "It isn't looking too good. The doctors removed a bullet from his shoulder. Now they're working on the other one."

Dom was almost too afraid to ask, but he stammered, "Where's the other one?"

"It's lodged up against his spine. It's going to be a very long surgery to get to that bullet if they can even get it out," Marella stated. Then taking a deep breath, she went on, "They think that even if they get it out, he'll be paralyzed from the waist down."

Dom sank down onto the couch that was behind him. "No, that can't be true. String wouldn't be able to live like that." He put his head down into his hands.

Marella sat down beside him to try to comfort him. She looked up at Michael for some reassurances, but didn't get any.

"Dom, do you want me to call Cait and let her know what's going on?" Michael asked.

Dom looked up, "No, I'll call her in a little while. I just need to get my head around this before I talk to her."

Michael motioned for Marella to walk with him. When they were out of Dom's hearing, he said, "Go back in and keep an eye on what's going on. Let us know what you see in there and what you hear. I'll stay here with Dom."

Marella nodded, "I don't think the news is going to be good, but I'll keep you informed."

She then moved back towards the operating room while Michael went and sat down with Dom on the couch.

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Just a little over 9 hours later, Marella came out of the operating room with a doctor. Dom immediately shot to his feet and walked towards the doctor. Marella paused to introduce him, "Dom, Michael, this is Dr. Scott. He operated on Hawke."

Dom took a breath to calm himself and then asked, "How is he, doc?"

"Let's go over and sit down while we discuss this. I've been on my feet for the last 11 hours," he said as he moved into the waiting room and took a seat.

"The news isn't good. We almost lost Mr. Hawke a few times during the surgery, but he survived it. We got both of the bullets out, but I'm afraid that Mr. Hawke is going to be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. I'm sorry that the news isn't better."

Dr. Scott looked at the three people facing him and saw that the news had upset each one of them. He went on, saying, "With therapy, he should be able to get around in a wheelchair…"

Dom couldn't sit still any longer. He got up and walked away from where the doctor was sitting. Marella went after him.

Michael watched the two of them walk away, then turned to the doctor, "Dr. Scott, thank you for the news. What's going to happen now?" Michael queried.

"Right now the nurses are getting him ready to be moved into the ICU Unit where we'll be able to keep a close watch on him. We'll keep him in there until he regains consciousness and then we'll see about moving him into a regular room. After that, he needs to regain his strength and then start therapy."

"All right." Michael stood as the doctor stood up and shook his hand. "Thank you again."

Michael paused before heading over to where Marella was consoling Dom. This was not good news for Hawke, Dom, or Cait. Well, he'd deal with it, he thought as he moved towards Dom and Marella.

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Dom hung up the phone in the private office that Michael had gotten for him so that he could call Cait and tell her about Hawke's condition. It had been a very difficult conversation. Cait had been inconsolable when Dom told her about Hawke. He really couldn't blame her because he felt pretty much the same way himself.

He put his head down on the table and wept. He had been expecting bad news about Nicky, but not about his own son. It just hurt too much. But now he at least knew how String had felt when he was attempting to rescue Nicky and why it had meant so much.

Taking a deep breath, he raised his head off the table and knuckled his eyes dry. Now the hard work would begin. He needed to go and sit with String until he woke up and see him through this mess. Getting up, he headed out the door.


	17. Chapter 17

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 17

Dom had been at the hospital in Brazil for over two weeks. He was ready to go home or at least he thought he was. String had been conscious for most of the two weeks and Dom thought that the hospital was probably kicking him out rather than String being ready to be discharged.

Archangel had arranged for a jet to take String and Dom back to the Firm's facility at Foxridge in about an hour. Now, he just had to get String out of the hospital and to the jet before someone decided to ring his neck.

When String had regained consciousness and been told that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life, he had gone into a shell. String wouldn't talk to Dom or anyone else for that matter. He wasn't interested in the physical therapy exercises they had prescribed for him to do either. String had just withdrawn into himself. Now Dom had to get him back to Van Nuys and work on getting him out of his shell.

At least once he got there he'd have the help of Cait and Nicky. Dom had really missed not having Cait around these past two weeks, but he knew how scared she was of Nicky being taken again so he didn't blame her.

Now, he just needed to get home!

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Marella greeted Dom when he got to the airplane. "How's it going?"

Dom took a look at the ambulance attendants working to move String into the jet and said not too loudly, "Not very good. String hasn't spoken to me since he found out that he was paralyzed. I know how upset he is about being paralyzed, but it's not good for him. I just don't know what to do."

"Hopefully, he'll come around once we get back to California. Cait has been anxiously awaiting his return."

"Yeah, I hope that he'll react to her. His just being there is..."

McKinley came up to where Marella and Dom were standing, "We're all set to go as soon as you and Mr. Santini get on board."

"Thank you. We're ready to go."

Marella and Dom climbed into the jet for the long ride home. Both were hoping for a better outcome when they got back to Van Nuys.

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String was settled into his room at Foxridge, but Dom still hadn't gotten him to talk other than to say that he didn't want to see anyone for any reason. When Dom asked if that included Cait and Nicky, String had said that yes it especially included them. Dom didn't know what to do.

Michael came up to him where he was standing in the corridor. "How's he doing?"

"Fine, if you consider that he doesn't want to talk to anyone or see anyone!" Dom replied sadly. "How are we going to get him out of this one?"

"Have you brought Cait and Nicky up to see him," Michael asked hopefully.

"Yes, I tried to bring them in to see him, but he refused to allow anyone in his room. I don't know what we're going to do with him!"

Michael looked into the room and said, "Let me go in and talk to him."

Dom just shook his head and said, "I'll go get a cup of coffee if you don't mind. I need to go and talk to Cait too so she'll understand that it's not just her that he doesn't want to see that it's everyone."

Michael watched Dom walk away then he took a deep breath before opening the door and going into Hawke's room. He stared at the man who had become a friend to him for a few minutes before addressing him, "Hawke, how long is this pity party going to last?"

Hawke's eyes flew open at that comment. He just stared at Michael for a long moment. "This isn't a pity party. I just want to go back to the cabin and get settled in."

"Well, you're going to need some help accomplishing that because I don't think the cabin is set up for someone getting around it in a wheelchair," Michael ventured.

"How soon before I can go back up there?" Hawke asked cautiously.

Michael scratched his mustache before he replied, "It depends on what you're planning to do up there. If you're just going to go up there and continue this pity party, then it will be a long time. If, on the other hand, you're going to work on the physical therapy the doctor recommended you have, then it will be a lot sooner."

Hawke shot Michael a dirty look. It looked like he was being outmaneuvered. He'd have to go along with Michael if he wanted to go back to the cabin any time soon.

"I'll do the physical therapy."

Michael smiled behind his hand as he stroked his mustache, "How are you planning to get the cabin wheelchair accessible? You can't do that on your own."

Hawke thought for a few minutes before he said, "Tell Dom to come in and talk to me when he's available. We'll figure something out."

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Dom was ushered into Michael's office about two hours later carrying some papers.

"I suppose you know what this is all about?" Dom asked as he waved the papers in front of Michael's face.

"Well, I assume those are plans for renovating the cabin so Hawke can get around it in a wheelchair," Michael responded.

"Yes, is this what you talked him into?"

"Dom, he's going to need to talk to someone and I figured this was a good way to get him to talk to you. Hawke asked about going back to the cabin and I told him that he wouldn't be able to until he had some renovations made and he agreed to physical therapy. I assume that he talked to you about some changes that need to be made on the cabin so he can live there?" Michael asked.

"Yeah. He wants to get started right away so he can get moved in as soon as possible," Dom said slowly. "Michael, I don't like him being out there by himself."

"He won't be by himself. Hawke'll have a trained nurse with him to help him with the physical therapy. Also, he's now talking to you which he wasn't a couple of hours ago." Michael paused before he went on, "We have to take baby steps to get what we want."

"What do we want?"

"We want Hawke doing physical therapy and, hopefully, learning to walk again," Michael said with a smile. "I've never know Hawke to turn down a challenge like the doctor telling him that he wouldn't walk again. Have you?"

"No, I haven't," Dom said with a grin.


	18. Chapter 18

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 18

Dom was shown into Michael's office as soon as he arrived. He sat looking around the office waiting for Michael to come back from his meeting. Dom's mind began to drift while he waited for Michael.

It had been about a month since String had come home to the cabin from the hospital. Michael had gotten him a nurse, then another, then another, … String had managed to go through 9 nurses in that time. Every one of them had found some reason to leave without making any progress in String's treatment. Now he was back to ask Michael for another one. Dom knew that Michael wouldn't be happy about that, but if he wanted String to recover he was going to need to provide the help.

Just then the door opened and Michael came in. "Dom, it's good to see you. How are you doing?" Michael asked.

"I'd be doing a lot better if I wasn't here to see you about getting another nurse out to help String."

"What! How'd he chase off this one?" Michael asked with a shake of his head.

"I don't know. I just know that when I flew out there to check to see how everything was going, Donald asked me for a ride back to Van Nuys. He wouldn't explain why he was leaving," Dom said sadly. "That's the ninth one in about a month."

Michael walked over to look out the window to hide a smile that was growing. Maybe he had a solution. He just needed to get Dom to see it. Keeping his eyes facing the hills in the distance, he suggested, "Maybe he just needs someone who won't leave for any reason."

"Yeah, and who is that?" Dom laughed.

"Cait."

"Cait? String doesn't want to see her. He went and hid in his room the last time that she and Nicky came out. How is that going to help?" Dom queried.

"We don't give Hawke any say in the matter," Michael speculated. "You just take Cait and Nicky out there and leave them. Tell them that you won't be back to pick them up for a couple of weeks unless it gets unbearable then they can call for a pick up."

Dom took a couple of minutes to turn things over in his mind. "It might just work," he said. "Maybe being stuck out there with Cait and Nicky will do him some good. Yeah, let's try it. I'll talk to Cait this morning and see if she can do it. Thanks, Michael."

"Let me know what happens."

"Of course."

Dom left Michael's office a little happier than when he had entered it. He didn't know how this plan would work out, but it had better for String's sake.

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String woke up to hear a helicopter landing on the dock. It sounded like Dom's so he assumed that Dom was bringing another nurse out for him. He wished that Dom wouldn't waste his time with the nurses. String just rode them until they got so put out with him that they left. He smiled to himself as he thought about how many had been out here since he got discharged from the hospital. This one would be gone soon too.

String managed to get himself up on the side of the bed and into the wheelchair before he heard Dom's helicopter lifting off again. That was strange. He couldn't imagine that Dom would leave without bringing the nurse up to the cabin to get him or her acquainted with the situation. Must be something was up. He'd just need to go and see what was going on.

String started to roll the wheelchair across the living room towards the door when the door opened and in walked Cait holding Nicky. That stopped him in his tracks.

"You can just turn around and go back where you came from!" String choked out.

"Sorry, I can't do that because Dom left and won't be back for two weeks," Cait said. "Here, hold Nicky while I go out and get our suitcases." She walked over to String and plopped Nicky down in his lap, then turned and left the cabin.

String looked away from Nicky. He couldn't afford to get involved. But Nicky had other things on his mind because he started to climb up String's chest to get his attention. "What do you want?" String asked Nicky as Nicky grabbed onto String's nose and tried to turn it. "It doesn't come off so you can stop trying," String said as he grabbed onto Nicky's hand.

That caused Nicky to look up at him. He got a big smile on his face as he said, "Os! Want Os!"

String smiled as he recalled the last time he had given Nicky some Cherrios. "Yeah, I'll bet you want some Os. Let's see what we can find for you to eat." He balanced Nicky on his lap as he rolled the wheelchair to the kitchen to see what he could find. String spotted a box of _Special K_ on the counter and pulled that down to see if Nicky would eat that but he wasn't interested. "Sorry, little guy, but I don't have any Os. What's taking your mother so long?" String grumbled as he rolled the wheelchair to the window to look for Cait.

String spotted her coming up the path with two suitcases and automatically moved to the door to open it. Cait came trudging in carrying the two suitcases.

"You don't know how much stuff you have to take when you travel with a little guy," Cait said as she set the suitcases down. "Most of what's in these two suitcases belongs to Nicky."

"Don't unpack anything because you aren't staying long," String said as he held Nicky out for Cait to take him.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but Dom is not coming back for two weeks like I told you earlier. He asked me to come and look after you because you had scared off 9 nurses in a month and Michael wasn't going to get any more. So you're stuck with us."

Cait started moving the suitcases down the hallway towards the new bedrooms totally ignoring String and Nicky. "Which room are you in so I know where to put Nicky's and my stuff?"

Cait paused waiting for an answer, but none was forthcoming so she continued to move down the hallway looking in each room as she came to it. Finally, she selected a room for Nicky and moved the suitcases in.

String just sat staring after her as she vanished down the hallway leaving him holding Nicky.


	19. Chapter 19

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 19

Hawke slowly woke up the next morning to sounds and smells coming from the kitchen area. He smiled as he thought about Cait being out there fixing him something to eat. It was typical of her—wanting to take care of him. It was going to break his heart to drive her away like he had driven everyone else away, but he needed to do it.

' _Might as well get on with it_ ,' he thought.

Slowly he maneuvered himself to sit up on the bed and then to get into the wheelchair. Moving slowly to the bathroom so that he could get himself going. About half an hour later, he wheeled the chair into the kitchen area and was surprised when there was no one there.

Instead he found a note propped up by the coffee pot telling him that Cait and Nicky had already eaten pancakes and had gone for a walk, and he could fix himself eggs if he wanted anything.

Darn, pancakes sounded good, but he'd have to settle for eggs, so he set about fixing them.

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An hour later, Cait and Nicky came back to the cabin. From the looks of it, they had enjoyed their walk immensely as they came back in laughing.

Hawke hated to do this, but he had to, "Where have you two been?"

"Oh, Nicky and I went out for a walk around the lake. It was beautiful! Saw a couple of deer while we were out. Got a great picture of Nicky trying to catch them," Cait said as she handed Nicky over to Hawke so she could take out her camera and show him the shot.

"I was supposed to start therapy half an hour ago," he groused on trying to ignore her, but secretly wanting to see the picture.

"Oh, I just figured I'd start that as soon as I got back. I really did need to take Nicky out and get him tired before I started therapy with you otherwise he would be interrupting us every two seconds," Cait continued.

Finally, finding the picture on her camera, she brought it over to show Hawke. He pretended like he didn't want to see it.

"Well, I'm going to have it made into a picture so I can put it up somewhere," Cait finished. "You ready to start therapy?"

"I've been ready for an hour and a half."

"All right, let's get started."

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Two hours later, Hawke was exhausted. She had really put him through the workouts. It had helped that Nicky had insisted on being a part of the therapy and had given Hawke some extra work and weight.

Cait smiled as she picked everything up and put it away. "You ready for some lunch?"

"Yeah, those eggs weren't enough to fill me up this morning especially after the way you worked me out."

"Next time get up at a reasonable hour and Nicky might share some pancakes with you. Though I wouldn't count on it as that's his favorite breakfast," Cait said as she turned to Nicky. "Nicky, what would you like for lunch?"

"Hamburgler."

"You want a hamburger?" Cait asked him back.

Nicky nodded vigorously indicating it was a favorite meal of his.

"How about that and a salad?"

Again Nicky nodded.

"Okay, Hawke, we're having hamburgers and a salad. Which of those will you eat?" Cait asked knowing full well that Hawke was a vegetarian.

"Salad and fish," he growled out.

"You'll get the salad, but not the fish. Nicky hasn't been taught to fish yet so we don't have any on hand. Sorry," Cait said as she turned away so Hawke wouldn't see her smile.

"Fix me the same thing you're fixing for him," he said as he rolled the wheelchair back towards his room. "Damn woman, getting me to eat what she's feeding him," he said under his breath.

"Oh, Hawke," Cait yelled from the kitchen, "after Nicky has his nap, you can take him out and teach him how to fish. No one's ever shown him how."

Hawke went back to his room and slammed his door shut.

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After lunch, Hawke went back to his room to lie down to recover from his vigorous therapy session. Closing his eyes, he got about two minutes of peace before Cait came into his room and deposited Nicky on the bed beside him.

"Since you're going to nap, I'll let you watch Nicky while he takes his nap so I can get some things done," she said as she went out of the room shutting the door behind her.

Hawke looked down at Nicky who didn't really look like he was going to take a nap anytime soon. "Yeah, all of the sudden, I'm not too interested in taking a nap either."

"Story."

"You want a story? I'll tell you one that will get your mother all upset with me!" Hawke said as he started a story. Part way into it, he realized that he couldn't tell Nicky the story the way he had planned to so he changed the story so that it was more appropriate for a young child.

When Nicky fell asleep, he couldn't help snuggling up to him. It wasn't his fault that Cait was being such a stick in the mud.

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An hour later, Cait peeked into the room and found the two of them asleep. Hawke had his arms protectively around Nicky snuggling with him.

Cait smiled knowing that she had won a round with Hawke. She didn't know how many more she would have to win before she won him over, though.

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Later that day, he went to fish, but refused to take Nicky with him. When he came back with three trout, Cait fixed them for supper.

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The first week went by quickly with Hawke trying hard to push Cait away. Unfortunately for him, she wouldn't go.

Every opportunity he had to aggravate her, he did, but she just stayed. Cait kept trying to get him to help out more with Nicky, but he held out with him too. Not wanting to get too involved.

After supper one night, Cait was out trying to teach Nicky to fish. She kept trying to bait the hook without touching the worm. After watching her from the porch for about 15 minutes, Hawke finally maneuvered his wheelchair down to the dock and took over. Explaining patiently to Nicky how you baited the hook.

Cait watched for a few minutes and then went back up to the cabin. Another mission accomplished as she really did know how to bait a hook and could very well teach Nicky how to do it. ' _Things are progressing nicely_ ,' she thought with a smile.


	20. Chapter 20

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

 _Mychand gave me some good advice so I am actually getting a lot accomplished today!_

Chapter 20

A couple of days later, Hawke was out fishing with Nicky while Cait watched from the porch. She smiled as she moved down towards them.

"How's the fishing going?" she inquired as she got close to them.

Hawke looked up with a smile on his face, "He's gotten two and I've gotten two so I guess that we'll quit for the day."

"Good," she said as she moved behind Hawke and took hold of the handles on his wheelchair. "We've got something else we need to do right now."

Cait pushed Hawke's wheelchair to the edge of the dock and then turned him out of it right into the water.

Hawke came up sputtering. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Michael said that you needed to be doing some water exercises but I couldn't get you started, so…" she laughed. "Now you're started!" she said as she started to gather Nicky up and head back to the cabin.

"Wait a minute. You can't just leave me here," Hawke shouted. "I might drown!"

Cait stopped moving away, "I don't think so."

"Well, at least help me get out. I can't do that on my own."

Cait thought about that then set Nicky down on the dock. She went over to the edge and reached her arm out to help Hawke out. Hawke had other plans as he pulled her into the lake over his shoulder.

Cait came up sputtering.

"One good turn deserves another," Hawke laughed.

Fortunately for him, Cait saw the humor in it and started laughing. She swam over to where Hawke was in the water and started splashing him.

They were laughing at the situation and splashing each other with water, until she looked over at the dock and saw Nicky jumping off the edge into the water.

"Oh, Jesus! He can't swim!" she yelled as she took off towards him.

Cait and Hawke both got to Nicky at about the same time. He was crying because of all the water that he had inhaled.

"Nicky, you can't swim! You don't just jump off the dock into the water when you can't swim!" Cait admonished him.

"Shhh, Cait. Don't yell at him, it'll just scare him more," Hawke said as he took hold of Nicky. "Let's give him his first lesson in how to swim!"

Hawke, Cait, and Nicky spent the next hour in the lake trying to teach Nicky to swim. When it was over, everyone was wet and laughing.

Cait got out as Hawke handed up Nicky to her, then she helped Hawke get out of the lake and back into his wheelchair.

"If you'll do water exercises like that, then I'll do them every day," Hawke laughed to Cait.

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Stringfellow Hawke sat in his wheelchair by the fireplace holding a book. He wasn't really reading it as he was watching Cait put Nicky to bed and then tend to cleaning up the mess in the room.

When Cait finished picking things up, she sat down on the couch. She was exhausted!

Hawke watched her for a few minutes before saying, "Cait, why do you stay?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. Why do you stay here and help me out? It's not as if I've been very …, Hawke paused to think of a word to insert, "cooperative?"

"Cooperative? That's funny. You've been the opposite of cooperative," Cait answered back.

"Yeah. So why have you stayed?"

Cait got up off the couch and came to sit on the hearth right next to Hawke. She paused to think how she would say her answer.

"I stay to help you because you gave me back something that means everything to me," she answered.

Hawke looked confused when she answered that way. "What do you mean?"

"You gave me back Nicky. He means everything to me. Without him, my life would mean nothing," Cait responded. She put her head down.

Hawke was shocked that she was being so honest with him. "Cait, Nicky is important to you, but he doesn't make you who you are. You're a very important person even without him."

When Cait looked up at him, Hawke saw the tears in her eyes. "You will never understand about a mother's love because you will never be a mother." With that Cait got up and went to her bedroom for the night.

Hawke just stared after Cait. How could he tell her that she was wrong? Cait was very important especially to him. She made _his_ life worth living.

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Two hours later, Cait was startled awake when she heard her bedroom door open. She sat up in bed and saw that it was Hawke who had come in.

He rolled his wheelchair over to the edge of the bed, then hoisted himself onto the edge of the bed. "Cait, I want to apologize for the way that I've behaved since you've been here. I have been a complete ass."

Hawke waited for Cait to say something, but she remained silent.

"I guess that means that you agree with me?" he ventured, looking at Cait with a small smile.

"Yeah, I do."

Hawke took a deep breath before continuing, "I want to apologize. I did it because I love you and Nicky and I didn't want you to get tied down with me like this." He gestured down at his legs. "I wanted so much more for you. You deserve someone who loves you and can…"

"Can what?"

Hawke looked Cait in the face and said, "Can take walks with you, can play with Nicky, can fly with you, can…" he stopped again.

"Can what?"

Hawke stared down at the floor when he said, "Can make love to you. You deserve to have that in a relationship."

Cait reached out to Hawke and pulled him to her. She gathered him in her arms and held onto him for dear life. "I don't want anyone but you. Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Yes," he whispered as he started to kiss her.

Cait returned his kiss and pulled him down onto the bed beside her.

Hawke stiffened, "Cait, I can't…"

"I know, String. Just lay here with me tonight and we'll see what happens after that."

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Early the next morning, Nicky came bursting into Cait's room to wake her up. He stopped short when he saw that his mother wasn't alone. Going to his mother's side of the bed, he climbed up and snuggled with her.

"Hi, sweetheart."

Nicky snuck a peek across his mother and met Hawke's eyes.

"Hi!"

Nicky wasn't sure what to make of Hawke being in here with his mother so he just snuggled back down into her side. Hawke reached his arm around Cait to include Nicky in his hug. Nicky snuck another peek across his mother at Hawke and offered a small grin.

"Yeah, just keep grinning at me," Hawke exclaimed as he laughed.

Nicky got up and climbed across his mother to investigate Hawke. Suddenly, he was swept up in the air and tossed.

Nicky perked up and said, "Os! Want Os!"

Hawke laughed as he said, "We'll see what we can find for you to eat for breakfast. I'll bet that you're hungry."

"Hungreeeeeee, want Os!"

Hawke pulled Nicky in and kissed him on the forehead. "Yes, you are special." Hawke paused to look at Cait. "But so is your mother." He reached over to kiss her passionately.


	21. Chapter 21

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 21

A week later, Dom was getting ready to leave after fixing supper for everyone. Cait managed to get him aside and ask him to take Nicky with him. He quickly agreed figuring that something was up.

"Okay, everyone, I'm heading out of here! Nicky, why don't you come and keep old Grandad company tonight? We can play some games and read some books before you go to sleep," Dom put out to entice Nicky to come with him. "You also get to ride in a helicopter!"

"Copper ride, copper ride!" Nicky yelled out while dancing around.

"Let me get his things together so you can go," Cait laughed casually as she went back to Nicky's room to pack up his clothes.

When she came back out, Dom already had Nicky in his sweatshirt ready to go. Cait followed Dom down to the helicopter with Nicky's bag and helped get him settled into the helicopter.

"Thank you, Dom," Cait said as she hugged him. "I'm going to try something on Hawke tonight and I don't want Nicky here in case it goes wrong."

Dom shook his head as he said, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Yeah, so do I! See you tomorrow."

Dom got into the helicopter and lifted off.

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"Okay, let's get your leg workout done, Hawke. I know how much you love to do it."

"How about we take the night off?" Hawke asked hopefully.

"No," Cait responded. "No nights off! You want to get back on your feet don't you?"

Hawke nodded, "More than anything!"

"All right. Let's get busy!"

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By the time they were finished, Hawke was exhausted. "You really know how to take the life out of someone."

"Ah, come on. Be a big boy!" Cait said as she helped him maneuver up onto the massage table. "Now comes the fun part!"

"I can think of some ways to make it more fun," Hawke suggested smiling at Cait.

"Just lie down so that we can get on with this."

"Yes, m'am," Hawke said as he stretched out on the table dragging Cait with him.

"What are you doing?"

Hawke looked around, "I thought I was getting my massage after the workout we just did!"

"If you want your massage, you'll let me up right now!" she said back to him.

Hawke released Cait as he laid back on the table. "You're no fun!"

"Let me finish your massage, please!"

Hawke rolled onto his stomach and laid quietly while Cait started the massage.

Part way through the massage, Cait spilled some lotion on her clothes. "Darn, now I've got to go and change. I'll be right back," she said as she went down the hallway to her room.

Looking quickly through her clothes, she pulled out a pair of pants and a shirt. Putting on the shirt and the pants, she looked in the mirror and thought back to Hawke's comment about her 'being no fun'. Taking off the shirt and pants, she pulled another set of clothes out of the closet and put them on. ' _See how much fun you think I am now,'_ she thought. She smiled at the result and walked back into the room where Hawke was laying face down on the massage table.

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 _You'll need to go to the Filter M to read this section. It wasn't intended when I started._

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Hawke woke up early the next morning. He couldn't believe his good fortune. Moving his hand up Cait's side, he smiled because he decided that she was still naked and in his bed. He didn't want to wake her up. They had stayed awake most of the night talking and making love again. She was amazing! He now realized that she had manipulated him since she had come up to the cabin. Manipulated him into admitting that he was in love with her and Nicky, and starting to do his physical therapy. The road ahead was going to be rocky but he couldn't see it any other way than with Cait and Nicky in it. Yup, they were in it to stay! He still couldn't get around like he used to, but Cait had shown him during the night that there wasn't any obstacle they couldn't overcome together.

Hawke didn't realize that he was running his hand up and down Cait's side—just enjoying the feeling of her skin—until she stirred in his arms.

"Mmmmm. That feels good," she responded.

Hawke pulled her up on top of him and started kissing her—knowing exactly what it would lead to… and not minding it one little bit!

 _One more chapter should finish this off!_


	22. Chapter 22

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 22

A few weeks later, Hawke found himself in Michael's office waiting for Michael to come back from his meeting. He smiled as he thought about the past month he'd spent with Cait and Nicky. She had manipulated him into making progress towards his recovery! But he didn't mind. In fact he was grateful.

Just then Michael walked into his office.

"Hawke, to what do I owe this honor?" he asked as he went to his desk and sat down.

"Michael, I want to get Connor to help me with my rehab," Hawke stated matter of factly.

Michael was surprised by the request because he thought that Hawke had been happy with Cait's help, but he didn't want to show his surprise. "Why?"

"Cait has helped me as much as she can. I just need someone else who's stronger for a while," Hawke said back to Michael a little impatiently.

"What about the fact that Connor won't want to come back out to the cabin to help you after how you behaved before when he was out there?" Michael asked.

"I'll make it worth his while. He'll come," Hawke replied confidently.

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Cait was confused when Dom told her that he had already taken String back up to the cabin. She was even more confused when he told her that he had also taken Connor.

"Wasn't Connor one of the nurses who worked with String before I went up there," Cait asked Dom.

"Yup," Dom answered. "I don't know why he was going back with String, but he was."

"Okay, when are you going to take Nicky and me out to the cabin?" Cait asked next.

She looked at Dom when he didn't answer her right away. After a couple of minutes, she asked, "What's up?"

"Uh, String doesn't want you to come out for about two weeks." Dom then quickly added, "I don't know what's up so I can't tell you. I'm sorry, Cait."

Cait stared at Dom for a minute before turning and walking away. The tears started falling as soon as she was out of his sight. For some reason, String didn't want her out at the cabin and she didn't know why. Had she done something to make him mad? Was he done with her?

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The two weeks crawled by for Cait as she tended to Nicky and work at the hangar.

It seemed like forever before Dom came up to her and asked, "Cait, you ready to go out to the cabin tonight?"

Cait turned away from Dom so he couldn't see her face, "I don't think that I'll go, Dom. I really don't feel like Hawke wants me out there."

Dom was shocked that she would say that. "Cait, he asked me when I spoke to him an hour ago if you were coming and I told him yes."

"He was probably just checking and hoping that I wasn't coming," Cait said.

"No, Cait, he said he was really looking forward to you and Nicky coming out for the weekend," Dom said as he was puzzled by Cait's reaction. "Come on, Cait, just ride out with me at least. Then when you get out there you can decide whether or not to stay."

"All right, Dom."

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Dom brought the helicopter in to land on the dock. He saw Connor coming down to meet them.

When Connor reached the helicopter, he opened the door and reached in to take Cait's hand. Cait pulled her hand back and Connor gave Dom a quizzical look.

"Cait, Hawke's waiting up in the cabin for you. He's been very excited about you and Nicky coming, but he pulled a muscle in his shoulder and knew that he wouldn't be able to make it back up to the cabin after I left," Connor said.

Cait didn't know what to do. She wanted to stay and she wanted to go back with Dom.

Finally, Dom said, "Cait, go and see what he has to say. If you don't like it, then call me and I'll come pick you up."

"Okay. I'll call you later if I want you to come back."

Dom watched as she got Nicky out of the helicopter and put her suitcases on the dock. Connor helped her carry everything up to the cabin and then left her.

"Okay, Nicky, this is it. Let's get this over with," she said as she opened the door to the cabin.

Hawke was right inside the door waiting for her. He took Nicky from her as soon as she stepped across the threshold. "Come on in. It seems like I've been waiting for you two forever," he said as he smiled.

They spent the next hour playing with Nicky on the floor. Hawke finally picked him up and sat him on his lap in the wheelchair. "I think it's time for you to go to bed," Hawke said as he looked at Cait. "Can I put him down to bed tonight?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not?"

Cait watched Hawke maneuver the wheelchair down the hallway to Nicky's room with Nicky balanced on his lap. Dreading what was coming, she decided to relax while he was putting Nicky to bed. Stretching out on the couch, she kept wondering what Hawke had to say to her.

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Hawke took Nicky into his bedroom to read him a night time story and get him to sleep. When he came back out into the living room, he found Cait asleep on the couch.

' _Well, I'll let you sleep for a little bit while I get things ready_ ,' Hawke thought. He would have liked to have kissed Cait, but he knew that he might wake her up, so he didn't.

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An hour and a half later, Hawke went over to where Cait was still sleeping on the couch and woke her up with a kiss. Cait slowly woke up, confused about where she was.

When she realized she was at the cabin, she asked, "What time is it?"

"Around 8:30."

"I must have really needed to sleep," Cait said as she sat up on the couch. "I need to go and check on Nicky."

"Go and check on Nicky, then freshen yourself up because supper's almost ready," Hawke said with a smile.

Cait got up and went down the hallway to check on Nicky. He was sound asleep cuddled up with his Teddy Bear. Cait walked over to him, pulled the covers up over him, and kissed him goodnight. "Sleep well."

Cait then went next door to her room. She opened the door and went into the bathroom. There she was surprised to find a dress hanging on the shower rod with a note. ' _I know that you will look beautiful in this dress! Please wear it!'_

Cait smiled as she fingered the beautiful dress. "Well, I guess I know what I'll be wearing to dinner tonight, though I don't know why!"

Cait quickly changed and went back to the dining room. She stopped when she got to the door because the room was lighted by just candles and the fireplace. It was filled with white carnations and looked very romantic.

Hawke came up beside her and asked, "You ready to eat?"

Not being able to speak, Cait just nodded her head. Hawke led her to the table and got her seated. He then rolled the wheelchair over to the stove to get supper. Hawke poured each of them a glass of champagne and picked his up, "To you, Cait. You are absolutely beautiful tonight."

Cait tipped her glass to meet his and drank some champagne.

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When the meal was over, Hawke took Cait's hand and turned it over. "Cait, we need to talk."

"Yes, we do," she responded not really wanting to hear what he had to say to her. She closed her eyes dreading what he would say.

Hawke took a deep breath and then he surprised her when he said, "Cait, will you marry me?"

Cait had been expecting many things, but not this. She opened her eyes and just stared at him with her mouth hanging open.

"Well?"

"Oh my gosh, did you just ask me to marry you?" Cait gasped out.

"Yes, and if you're concerned how Nicky feels about it, I already asked him when I put him down to bed," Hawke said with a smile. "He was fine with it."

Hawke paused again and asked nervously, "So, will you? Marry me?"

"Yes! Oh yes, I will!" Cait exclaimed as the tears started flowing down her cheeks.

Hawke reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small box. He opened the box and took out a ring. Taking Cait's hand again, he put the ring on her left hand, then kissed her hand.

"It's lovely!" she said as she stared at her hand. "It's so unique!"

"Yeah, I designed it for us and had it made up. I was hoping that you'd say yes!"

Cait reached for Hawke and pulled him in for a kiss.

"Is all forgiven?" Hawke asked with a mischievous grin.

"Yes!"

"Good. Let's go to bed!" he suggested, "And not go to sleep!"

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The next morning when Nicky came into his mother's bedroom, he wasn't surprised to find Hawke there. He crawled up on Hawke and his mother, and wiggled his way down between them.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Hawke teased Nicky.

Nicky reached over and kissed Hawke, then turned and kissed his mother.

"I think that he's okay with everything," Hawke commented as he looked at Cait smiling.

"Yeah, he's okay with everything," Cait agreed.

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On Monday morning when Hawke was seeing Cait down to the helicopter that Dom had just landed on the dock, he kissed her and Nicky good-bye. "Remember, you only have two weeks to get everything ready," he said calmly. "You invite whomever you want and plan whatever you want. You got that?"

Cait nodded as she kissed him again before getting into the helicopter. Hawke waved good-bye as Dom lifted the helicopter up into the air.

Hawke then turned to Connor who had gotten out of the helicopter, "We've got a lot to get done in two weeks," he said as he watched the helicopter flying away.

Connor started pushing the wheelchair up the hill to the cabin. "Yup. So we'd better get started!"

 _I promise that this next chapter will be the last one!_


	23. Chapter 23

_I do not own any of the characters and am just taking them out to play._

Chapter 23

The day had finally arrived. Today, she would marry String! Cait still couldn't believe it. The past two weeks had just flown by as she planned the wedding with Dom, Michael, and Marella's help.

The night before, the rehearsal dinner had gone well. They had practiced the wedding ceremony and then Dom had fixed dinner for everyone. They had stayed up late celebrating the upcoming wedding. Everyone had gone home and gotten a good night's sleep so they would be ready for the wedding.

Everyone that is, except for Cait. She had not slept the night before the wedding. She still couldn't believe that she and String were getting married. She had stayed up most of the night worrying about something happening to stop the wedding. Now that the day was here, she would soon be able to stop worrying.

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The helicopter bringing Cait out to the cabin arrived just before 4. She was immediately rushed into the house by her mother and sisters to get dressed. Nicky was off somewhere with Dom doing who knew what. It seemed that everything was ready.

Cait looked in the mirror and adjusted her veil. She could hear the music playing off in the distance.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," she said.

Her father came into the room. "Cait, you look beautiful!" he said as he walked up to Cait and took her in his arms.

Cait started sniffling, so her dad said, "You'd better stop that or you'll ruin your make up." Then he pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to her.

"You know that you don't have to marry him if you don't want to. Your family will always love you no matter what," he added quickly.

"Dad, I love him and I want to marry him," she smiled at him as she said it. "Let's go and get this done."

Just then there was another knock on the door. "Come in."

The door opened and Marella came in. "Are you ready?"

Cait turned with a big smile and said, "Yes, I've been ready for a long time."

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Cait waited inside the cabin as her sisters and Marella went out ahead of her. Finally it was her turn.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at her father and said, "It's time."

"Yes, it is," he answered her back.

They started out the door and down towards the dock where String was waiting with Nicky, Dom, and Michael.

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String watched Cait from the dock as she came out of the cabin. She was beautiful! It seemed like he had waited for this day for his entire life. Now it was here. Soon she would be his wife.

He kept his eyes on her as she started to walk down towards the dock. Smiling the whole time as he held Nicky, he said, "Here comes Mommy! Isn't she beautiful?"

Nicky just giggled as he said, "Boo-tee-full!"

Hawke patted Nicky on the back and said, "You'll understand when you get older and you're standing here waiting for your bride!"

Hawke kept his eyes on Cait as her father brought her to him and stood beside them. The minister started the wedding and asked who gave her to be married. Her father proudly said, "Her mother and I do." Then he kissed her, gave her hand to String, and went to stand next to his wife.

Cait was beaming as the ceremony progressed. Finally, the minister concluded the ceremony and said, "I would like to present Mr. and Mrs. Stringfellow Hawke!" Now Cait knew that her dream had come true as she and String started to walk to greet their guests. She was married to String. They would still have some obstacles to overcome with String still being in the wheelchair…

Cait stopped walking. String noticed that she had stopped so he turned around to look at her.

She looked at String and sobbed, "You can walk!"

String smiled as he pulled Cait back into his arms. "Yes, I wondered when you'd notice!"

"I guess that I was so caught up in the moment that I figured everything was back to normal. I didn't even think anything of it," Cait said as the tears continued to flow down her face.

"Well, we can put that wheelchair into retirement. We won't be needing it any longer."

"How?"

"I was determined that I would stand at my wedding to you, so Connor and I have been working on getting me to the point where I could walk for the past month. We worked tirelessly from the time we got up in the morning until we collapsed at night. That's why I wanted him here to help me and not you because he was stronger than you were and he could punch me when it was necessary! _You_ wouldn't have punched me."

"Punched you?"

Hawke laughed, "Yes, it came to that a few times when I couldn't do what he asked. After punching me out, he got me so mad that I did it. That was the only reason he agreed to come back—as long as he had the opportunity to hit me when he felt it was necessary and it _was_ necessary a couple of times."

Cait settled her head back on String's shoulder as she said, "Remind me to thank him."

Cait looked back up at String and said, "I love you, Stringfellow Hawke!"

"I love you, too, Caitlin Hawke!" String said as he kissed her.


End file.
